Elder Oldroyd: Doubt not…fear not…

Man was it great to hear from our inspired leaders!! This conference was great! It honestly went by way too quickly. Growing up I would dread conference. It felt like it went on for weeks! But now that when I take notes and actually pay attention, it zooms by! I loved all of the talks, but the one I liked the most was Jeffrey R. Holland’s. He is my favorite Apostle honestly. He told us that we need to love others more. What my thoughts were during his talk were that we need to forget/forgive the bad and love the good. “Through righteousness we can change the world.” That made me go into deep thought. If only everyone was righteous in the way our Lord wants us, this World can be a far different/better place to be. Another quote I thought was great was “Christ never condones sin, he only forgives sin.”

I hope all of you enjoyed conference this weekend! It was a great weekend. For the two sessions on Saturday we went up to Wooster in the other Elders’ area to go to a man named Stan. As a District, we watched conference. Between sessions we played catch with the baseball. It was a great time. We then drove back down to our Ward for Priesthood. We all had ice cream before the session started. That is their ritual. Usually they would go to a restaurant in town, but then they would go home smelling like smoke and some women questioned their husbands about them smelling haha. So they just kept it simple so they wouldn’t get into trouble anymore Sunday morning we got invited by Roy (the less active we brought back to activity) for breakfast. He made three eggs each, 6 pieces of bacon each and a whole bagel each with a full glass of orange juice. Honestly, Elder Jenkins and I didn’t like it, but we still ate it haha. That’s the thing, even if you don’t like it, suck it up and eat it.

We went over to the Crawford’s home for the first session. Without even knowing, they made meatballs and mashed potatoes for lunch. They dished us a plate full. We were already filled, but we ate that. It was pretty good. Their computer froze a little bit during talks. They are such an awesome family. We then had to go over to our Ward mission leader’s home for the next session. Sister Yates always cooks so much food. Her food is so amazing too! She is a great cook! We had to stuff our faces again haha. Hot dogs, hamburgers, pasta, beans, corn on the cob, and soup. Then for dessert homemade ice cream. Conference started and she threw pillows on the ground for us to lay down and settle our stomachs haha. Not going to lie, with all that food I started getting really tired. I was dosing off and then all of a sudden I had a piece of pie handed to me after we all sang at the halfway point. That woke me up for about 20 minutes then I started dosing off again. Something in that food made me really sleepy. Our members in the Ashland Ward take really good care of us. They are a blessing in my life. I don’t know what I would do without them!

We haven’t gotten in contact with any of the investigators that we found last week, which is super unfortunate. Hopefully one day we will be able to meet with them. We actually found another new investigator whose name is Nathan. Jenkins wanted to go to Great Clips to get his hair cut (my clippers aren’t doing so hot anymore). He was getting his hair cut and this man came up to me and asked who I was. We got talking for a while and he asked us to come over haha. It was a pretty cool thing that happened. Most of the time we go up to people and start talking to them about the Gospel, this was the other way around. He has talked with missionaries in the past on the street before. But he wants us to come over to his home. His name is Nathan, probably around 45 years old.

This week was a very good week in the great state of Ohio! It’s a great time to be a member of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints. The brethren have asked us to invite at least 4 people to take the discussions or any committment you decide to give them! Good luck and I know you can do it! “Faith is the antidote of fear.” I love all of you and hope y’all have a great week. You’re all in my prayers! Be safe and may God be with you!

Love Elder Oldroyd